


Those Who Stayed

by mister13eyond



Category: NieR: Automata (Video Game)
Genre: (in that everything with Adam & Eve is religious symbolism), Character Study, Gen, If You Squint - Freeform, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Introspection, Philosophy, Post-Ending D (Nier), Post-Ending E (NieR: Automata), Religious Imagery & Symbolism, Slight Adam/Eve
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-01
Updated: 2019-05-01
Packaged: 2020-02-10 16:39:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18664258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mister13eyond/pseuds/mister13eyond
Summary: Adam and 9s play a game of chess aboard the Ark.





	Those Who Stayed

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is honestly mostly inspired by a late-game philosophical conflict in Soma. Ships very light/ barely existent to the point it’s entirely possible to read all these interactions as platonic. Set post ending D, with 9s having chosen to leave on the Ark with Adam and Eve. Essentially a study in how endings E and D could exist together.

"You know, 9s, it's entirely possible that you survived down there."  
9s looks up from the chessboard that he is bent over, up into the eyes of the machine that sits across from him. Adam is resting his cheek on his fist, his elbow on the seat of his chair, studying 9s over the rim of his glasses.

"I wouldn't say that." 9s looks back down at the chessboard and slides his rook across the board. The rasp of wood on wood, the gentle clack of the pawn that he captures as he sets it down on the table. They all feel so... real. "I was dying. I felt my black box shutting down."

"Perhaps." Adam leans over the chessboard and moves his Queen. A defensive move, one that cuts off 9s's line of attack. "But I died, as well. As did Eve. The us that exists now is pure data. Copies of us, archived, logged in this Eden. The us that you faced died."

9s folds his hands and rests his face on them, thoughtful in his consideration of the chessboard. In all actuality, it's very easy for him to determine all possible moves within the span of a few seconds. As a Scanner model, he's built with the ability to calculate complex outcomes. Chess is one of the first things that humans taught androids' ancestors, back in the day.  
But he likes to think about it consciously. It makes it more interesting. "So when you welcomed me aboard the Ark...."

"We copied your data, yes." Adam looks pleased. He often does, when 9s entertains him like this. Adam's adoration for Eve is plain and apparent, but Eve has neither the patience for nor any interest in these philosophy games, these lofty questions.  
And he hates chess. So it seems Adam is happy to have 9s aboard.  
"If, somehow, you didn't die- or rather, the body that belonged to 9s- then that means there could be in existence two entities that call themselves 9s."

It's an unusual thing for an android to ponder. Though 9s is aware, or has been made aware, that he has died and been reformatted before, he has only ever existed as one 9s. Though he lost his life at the hands of 2b- ( _2e_ , though he can hardly stand to call her that)- each time he was killed he was restored from old data, revived in a fresh new body with backup files saved to the Bunker. But never once was that data awake or alive at the same time, simultaneously.

And he doesn't remember those selves. Those memories, those versions of 9s- they ceased to exist. The him that exists now has only ever existed once, in his memory, though memory is hardly the objective truth.  
"What about it?" 9s moves his knight and looks up, catching Adam's eye through the glass of his glasses. "I'll never meet him again, if that's so. As far as I'm concerned, I'm the only me that matters."

Adam laughs, maybe startled, maybe impressed. Likely amused, as he is by most things. "You don't want to think about it? You aren't bothered by it?"

"I could dwell on which of us is real." 9s shrugs. "You said you copied my data, and I have no physical body here. You, me, Eve. This garden we sit in. This chessboard, this piece." He holds up his captured white pawn. "They're all simulations. Anyone looking inside this Ark would only see circuitry. So, I don't suppose I've been real since the moment I stepped aboard."

"It doesn't bother you?" Adam seems genuinely curious. Not ill-intentioned or malicious, just consumed- as 9s has come to realize the both of them are- with a childlike, intense need to know things, to experience things.

"To be honest, I ceased to feel like the real me the moment 2B died. Everything was flat, grey. The world had no meaning without her. Frankly, I don't particularly care what's real and what's not."

"She killed you. Countless times."

"Sure. And I loved her."

Adam seems genuinely baffled by that, a miasma of intense confusion that doesn't clear even when he captures 9s's knight.  
Funny. He still struggles with that one. Eve has one advantage over his brother, and it's that he's never once asked 9s to explain _why_ he loved 2b. He simply knew.

"Do you envy the 9s that could exist on Earth?"  
"Well. I'm pretty sure he's dead. But if he's not... I don't know. Does he have it much better?"

Adam rolls 9s's captured black pawn between his fingers, studying the glint of the lacquered wood in the light. "What if 2b were able to be revived, too? Would you envy him then?"

It's enough to give 9s pause, a long moment as he calculates his next move, ponders what he could say to that.  
Finally, he moves a pawn. Defensive, simply to block Adam.  
"Maybe. Or maybe just knowing some version of me got to see her again would be enough."

"You don't know?" Adam pushes his glasses up on his nose. A strand of pale hair falls to get snagged on the arm of his glasses, though he doesn't seem to notice. "How can you not know how you feel?"

"Easily." 9s spies an opening and goes for it, catching Adam's queen with his rook. "How do you feel about Eve?"

"That's easy. I love him."

"Well, what if you knew Eve was happy somewhere, but you weren't part of it? That he was safe, and cared for, and happy, but you couldn't be there. You could never see him again."

Adam pauses, and 9s can almost see the gears working in his head. "He would never be happy without me."  
"So.... what if there were two copies of you? But you- _this_ you- wasn't the copy that got to go with him?"  
"Hm." It's clear from the thoughtful noise that Adam will have to ponder this for some time.

9s sits back in his chair, tilting his face up to look at the blue sky. Though it's not real- though it never has been- it's pretty. It never was this blue, back on earth. "Anyways. That's check."  
"Ah!" Adam looks back down at the board, delighted. "Then I think I concede this match for now."  
"What? Aw, man, you can't just concede when you're cornered- look, there are like three ways you can get out of this!"

Adam ignores 9s's complaints and stands, pocketing the knight he has captured. "You've given me plenty to think about. But I'm tired of this game." He smiles, genuine and disarming, at 9s. "I am going to play with Eve. Are you coming?"

9s sighs, rising. Oh, to grow used to the whims of fickle machines.... "Next time, you'll give me a full match."

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on twitter at @Mr13eyond, where I MOSTLY yell about Final Fantasy XV.


End file.
